Automated Toolboxes for Target Setting, Troubleshooting, and NV Performance Prediction 2013-01-1971

The role of NVH test development has changed from addressing a system-level NV concern late in the design cycle (firefighting) to having well established NV optimized test procedures in place. One way this is achieved is by leveraging the information gained during troubleshooting of current product to improve the future product development process for noise and vibration. Today, most NV groups/laboratories use optimized test procedures for creating accurate, consistent, and efficient test results. This still requires expertise to post-process data, compute targets and interpret results to guide product development. This step is often overlooked and, in recent years, due to the lack of NV expertise of “younger” labs (typically in non-automotive industries) or of more established labs affected by the economic downturn (early retirements, lay-offs, especially in the automotive industry) there has been a growing need for automated post-processing “intelligent” procedures. This paper describes a few automated software tools that have been developed by the authors to address common needs of different industries such as reducing post-processing and calculation time, interpreting test data, providing guidelines for further troubleshooting and predicting system performance from component-level data. The paper will also discuss the technique/process strategies used to develop such automated tools.